Alaska Unveils B737-10 Lie-Flat Seats, New A330 Cabins & Bank Transfers

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At a Glance:

Yesterday, Alaska Air Group announced a suite of changes across Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. Highlights include new business class seats on Hawaiian’s A330s, lie-flat premium cabins aboard Alaska’s future Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners and select Boeing 737-10 MAX aircraft, and a new premium economy cabin called Premium Reserve. Earlier this year, Alaska announced new reverse herringbone business seats coming to its Boeing 787-9s.

Across the new cabins, guests can expect Bluetooth-equipped entertainment, upgraded dining, and Starlink Wi-Fi.

Along with onboard changes, Alaska is also upgrading the ground experience with a new Aurora Lounge in Seattle and an exclusive Aurora Suites check-in.

The bit of news I’m most personally interested in is that eligible Bank of America card products will be able to transfer points to Atmos Rewards sometime in 2027. Atmos Rewards is also actively seeking partnerships with other global financial institutions.

Hawaiian’s All-New A330 Business Class

Hawaiian’s fleet of 24 A330s is certainly due for an update. All will receive new interiors starting in 2028, featuring 22 Leihōkū Suites (business class) in a 1-2-1 reverse herringbone configuration, with window seats facing the window and middle seats facing inwards towards each other.

The seat looks extremely familiar, resembling the Collins Aerospace Super Diamond product used by Air Canada, but with the addition of a door.

Leihōkū Suites features include:

• Exclusive check-in and concierge service in Seattle and Honolulu
• All seats have direct aisle access, lie flat, and have privacy doors
• A 19-inch 4K entertainment display with Bluetooth
• Wireless, USB-C and/or AC power charging
• Starlink Wi-Fi for Atmos Rewards members, complimentary by T-Mobile (to be fair, all cabins get this)

There will also be 28 new Premium Reserve (premium economy) seats.

Alaska’s All-New B787 Business Class and B737-10 Lie-Flat First Class

In March, Alaska announced new Aurora Suites business class for its Boeing 787-9 aircraft. That hasn’t changed, but Alaska has now announced the same lie-flat seats for First Class on its Boeing 737-10, a narrowbody aircraft. These will fly select transcontinental routes starting in 2028.

On at least 25 Boeing 737-10s, there will be 12 Aurora Suites. While many carriers have gone with a herringbone seat to maximize space on single-aisle craft, I’m happy to see Alaska install reverse herringbone seats on its B737-10s in a 1-1 configuration.

As announced previously, Alaska’s Boeing 787-9s have 34 Aurora Suites, while future 787-10s will have 40. The Boeing 787-9 Aurora Suites are already flying today, while Premium Reserve will begin rolling out in 2028. Once updated, about 46% of the 787-9 cabin will consist of premium seating, up from 38% today.

Aurora Suites features include:

• Exclusive check-in and concierge service in Seattle
• Access to new Aurora Suites lounge in Seattle
• All aircraft have lie-flat seats; there are privacy doors on the 787
• A 19-inch 4K entertainment display with Bluetooth
• Wireless, USB-C and/or AC power charging
• Starlink Wi-Fi for Atmos Rewards members, complimentary by T-Mobile (to be fair, all cabins get this)

There will be 35 Premium Reserve seats on the 787s and 12 on the Boeing 737-10 MAX.

About Premium Reserve

Premium Reserve is being added to Alaska’s Boeing 787-9 and 787-10 fleets, Hawaiian’s A330 fleet, and select Boeing 737-10 MAX aircraft. The rollout aligns with the new business class seats. Alaska calls this a four-cabin configuration, although “Premium Class” is essentially extra-legroom economy rather than a separate premium cabin, similar to United’s Economy Plus.

Premium Reserve features include:

• 38 inches of pitch and a wider seat than in regular economy
• Enhanced recline with a leg and calf rest
• Large tray tables and extra storage pockets
• A 16-inch 4K OLED entertainment screen with Bluetooth
• Multiple charging options including AC power and USB-C

Premium Dining

The press release highlights the cheese and charcuterie board, but Alaska also focuses on serving the flavours of Hawaii onboard. Hawaiian Airlines Executive Chef Dell Valdez continues to work on the menus of Hawaiian’s Leihōkū Suites and First Class cabins. This summer, Hawaiian launched a new Main Cabin pre-order menu on most flights between Hawaii and the mainland U.S., developed with a Maui-based chef Sheldon Simeon.

After the merger and Hawaiian’s transition from the HA flight code to Alaska’s AS code, it’s nice to see Hawaii’s cultural identity maintained onboard. Alaska also continues to differentiate between Alaska and Hawaiian aircraft in its official media releases.

New Aurora Lounge in Seattle

Among all the onboard enhancements announced, Alaska is creating a new Alaska Lounge and Aurora Lounge. These will be in one connected space and for both domestic and international travellers. The location is the newly expanded Concourse C, and the combined square footage is an impressive 41,000 square feet. The expected opening date is late 2027.

The first floor Alaska Lounge is intended for travellers who can access the lounge under existing policies (Alaska Lounge members, day pass guests, certain first class passengers) with a 500-guest capacity, while the upstairs Aurora Lounge is a dedicated premium experience for Aurora Suites guests travelling intercontinentally, as well as eligible Atmos Titanium members travelling internationally, with a 200-guest capacity.

Other features include:

• Outdoor patio with fireplace
• Private work pods
• Locally sourced food and beverage offerings including seasonal menus, a pizza oven, coffee lab and fresh pastries
• The premium bar areas across both floors offering craft cocktails, curated wines and beers from local breweries
• Aurora Lounge: private shower suites, wellness spaces, and à la carte dining

Additionally, Alaska is opening a new 14,000-square-foot lounge in San Diego in 2028.

New Hawaiian Airlines Lounge in Honolulu

Alongside a new lounge in Seattle, Hawaiian Airlines is also opening a nearly 13,000-square-foot lounge in Honolulu come early 2028. Located in the Mauka Concourse in Terminal 1, the new lounge will seat 200 guests. Alaska says access will be similar to The Plumeria Lounge today, including for guests travelling in Leihōkū Suites.

Other features passengers can look forward to:

• Locally-inspired food and beverage options
• Signature local coffee experience
• Full-service bar with specially crafted cocktails
• Private workspaces
• Artwork and installations by local artists

Atmos Rewards Adds Bank Transfer Partners

In a separate press release, Alaska outlines new ways to engage with the Atmos Rewards program, including a new Bank of America debit card. The new debit card coming in early 2027 will earn status points along with Atmos Rewards points.

Most importantly, Bank of America card products will be able to transfer points to Atmos Rewards in 2027. This is particularly notable because Bilt and Marriott Bonvoy are currently the only ways to transfer points to Atmos Rewards, and Bank of America also doesn’t have a transferable currency right now. These transfers will co-exist with Bank of America’s existing suite of Atmos Rewards co-branded cards.

What really caught my attention is Alaska saying “over time, Atmos Rewards also plans to add points-transfer opportunities with other select global financial institutions” — global has to mean Canada, right?! We had Alaska co-branded cards with MBNA not long ago, before applications closed in November 2022.

Are Bank Transfer Partners a Good Thing?

It’s a double-edged sword. While making Atmos Rewards points more accessible and easier to earn is a plus, I expect award space to become harder to find as more members compete for the same seats, and we may see program “enhancements” (devaluations) as a result. When Qatar first adopted Avios, Qsuites award space was plentiful. Avios are much easier to acquire today, but booking Qsuites closer to departure than the one-year mark has become quite a challenge.

That said, the main issue with booking awards today isn’t price, but availability. Partners decide how much award space to give Alaska, and frankly, there’s very little available right now internationally outside of American and STARLUX. Booking Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific with Atmos Rewards is closer to a dream than reality, regardless of how many points it’ll cost you.

My take is the program will remain attractive, as Alaska is still competing with the Big 3 U.S. giants of American, Delta and United and needs to be competitive to attract customers. Interestingly, Alaska says more than half of new status members are Gen Z.

Atmos Rewards remains my favourite frequent flyer program and would easily be my most-used program if points were easier to come by. It’s my go-to for all short- and medium-haul around North America on American Airlines and Porter.

Book Alaska Long-Haul with Points

Atmos Rewards and American Airlines AAdvantage are two of the most practical ways to book Alaska’s long-haul flights with points. There’s no easy way to earn Atmos Rewards in Canada, so buying them makes sense when there’s a 90-100% bonus sale.

AAdvantage is much easier to earn in Canada (relative to Atmos Rewards, not that it’s easy), as you can transfer RBC Avion points at a 1:0.7 ratio. I save my RBC Avion points for the once-a-year 15% transfer bonus, and I put nearly all of Avion into AA.

In my searches, Atmos Rewards has access to more Alaska-operated award space, with transpacific business class awards available starting at 95,000 points one-way.

I’d set alerts with a service like seats.aero and keep an eye on your text messages. Seats.aero lets you set a maximum points price for alerts, so you can set it to 95,000.

For transatlantic flights to Europe, it looks like 150,000 points one-way is the saver price for business class. The flights went on sale last fall and I’ve never seen it drop below 150,000.

For what it’s worth, it makes sense that transatlantic pricing would match transpacific pricing since the flying times are similar (and Rome is actually the furthest of all four destinations).

If you’re lucky, you can book Alaska business class with AAdvantage, with transpacific business class flights costing 60,000 miles and transatlantic business class flights costing 57,500 miles. Adding a positioning flight on American Airlines may increase the price. At the time of writing, Alaska has no long-haul business class award space available to AAdvantage.

Takeaway

There’s a lot to look forward to at Alaska and Hawaiian over the next few years, from genuinely competitive new premium cabins to better lounges and an upgraded onboard experience.

Atmos Rewards becoming easier to earn is more of a double-edged sword, particularly if more members chasing the same limited award space makes availability even worse. Still, Atmos Rewards points are currently difficult to earn in Canada, so I’d gladly take that risk if one of Alaska’s future “global financial institution” partners finally gives Canadians a practical way to earn them.